Field of the Invention
The invention relates, in general, to gas-testing devices and, in particular, to a new and useful device for opening of breakable ampules, especially glass test tubes, the end of which, scratched by a scoring tool, can be removed by a break-off device.
In the most diverse areas of application where, for example, liquids must be removed from ampules, they are scratched at the end in order to open them. This produces a site where the breaking off of the tip should occur.
This also applies to test tubes for detection of gaseous pollutants in air, which must be broken off at both ends prior to use. In the case of a familiar test tube for visualization of air currents, prior to use the end of the glass is passed along a saw, thereby being scored, and the tip is subsequently inserted into an appropriate opening and broken off by bending the tube over (Operating Instructions No. 4351, Dragerwerk AG, Lubeck, W. Germany, June 1986, 4th edition).
In the known device for breaking off the ends of ampules, the fact that the user must manually pass the ampule along the scoring tool, or in the present case a saw, is a disadvantage. This may produce an irregular scratch about the circumferences of the ampule, thereby resulting in an undefined, jagged fracture when subsequently broken off. This must be handled with caution, and the glass fragments produced during the breaking off of the ampule end must be carefully removed. Furthermore, lengthwise scratches may be formed by stress in a glass ampule, weakening its stability. Since the known ampules and test tubes are not used frequently enough for the user to develop a feeling for the necessary manipulations in the scoring and breaking off of the ampule ends over time, the disadvantages recur in each individual instance.